The present invention relates to improved training or practice cartridges, and particularly to an improved color-disseminating projectile for such cartridges.
A need exists for a low-cost 40 mm training cartridge for use in the M79/M203 grenade launchers and/or the XM174 automatic grenade launcher. The training cartridge must produce a color signal that is visible to the unaided eye under various terrain conditions at all usable ranges. These training cartridges are consumed in considerable quantities in training of troops which emphasizes the need for minimum cost.
The present invention evolved as part of an overall program to develop a new and improved cartridge that would satisfy the functional requirements of the current 40 mm, M407, practice cartridge at a substantially lower cost. The projectile of the M407 cartridge comprises a cavity filled with a finely-divided dye material and explosive means for disseminating the dye into the air at impact to produce a visible aerosol color signal. An object of the present invention was to substitute lower-cost non-explosive means for disseminating the dye material.
In accordance with the invention, a training cartridge projectile is provided, comprising: a housing having a prism-shaped axial recess, e.g. of hexagonal cross-section, closed at the rear and open at the front, in which a prism-shaped heavy piston of similar cross-section is slidably disposed; a cup-shaped ogive member of frangible material, e.g. plastic, having its open end attached to the open end of the housing to form a cavity therein and comprising an annular weakening groove; spring means resiliently interposed between the ogive member and the piston, and a mass of finely-divided color-producing material substantially filling the cavity, whereby on impact, the piston moves forwardly by inertia against the spring means, breaking the ogive member, and ejecting the color material into the air to form the desired aerosol color signal.